This Siva temple is believed by some as the present Koneswaram temple (Gunasingam, 1975)."30. In that island, on the eastern shore of the sea there is Gokarna, the great shrine of Sankara."Reference: Tagare, 1987. p.311.
The Sri Lankan Pali chronicle Mahawamsa refers to the existence of a temple of God on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka during the reign of King Mahasena [(277-304 A.D.) Gunasingam, 1975]. According to Mahawamsa (Chapter XXXVII: 40-41), King Mahasena founded three Buddhist Viharas at Gokanna, Erakavilla, and Brahman Kalnda by destroying the temples of Brahmanical gods (Geiger, 1912). The Mahavamsa Tika reveals that the Gokanna Vihara was on the coast of the eastern sea while the other two in the region of Rohana (Geiger, 1912). The Gokarna temple of Mahawamsa is thought to be the same one mentioned by Vayu Purana (Gunasingam, 1975).
Daksina Kailasa Manmiam, a section of the Sanskrit Skanda Purana (about 8th century A.D.) mentions that from very ancient times nine sacred shrines were famous for the Hindus. Among them, two were in Sri Lanka namely Koneswaram and Tiruketheeswaram (Navaratnam, 1998).
Inscriptions
A slab inscription known as the Nilaveli record was found within the premises of Pillayar temple in Nilaveli, a small town located 14 km northwest of the Trincomalee town (Gunasingam, 1975). This record contains 14 lines of writing indited in an admixture of Grantha and Tamil characters and has been dated to the early 11 century A.D.; the beginning of the Cola rule in Sri Lanka (Gunasingam, 1975). According to Gunasingam, the palaeography of this inscription very closely resembles that of the periods of Rajaraja I (c. 985-1014 A.D.) and Rajendra I [(c. 1014-1044 A.D.) Gunasingam, 1975].
Besides the Nilaweli inscription, another reference to the Koneswaram is found in the Manankeni inscription of Cola Illankesvaradeva, the representative of Sri Lanka of Cola King Rajendra I (Gunasingam, 1975).
Portuguese Period
The Koneswaram temple was looted in 1624 by Portuguese and was completely demolished by Constantine de Sa in order to employ its materials for the building of the fort (Navaratnam, 1998). Some of the statues in the temple were taken by locals to Thambalagamuwa where later a temple to the lord of Koneswaram (Ati Konanayakar Temple) was built by King Rajasinha II [(1635-1687 A.D.) Navaratnam, 1998].
Dutch and British occupation
During the Dutch occupation of Trincomalee, the site was not allowed for the public to perform their religious activities (Navaratnam, 1998). However, the permission was given to them by the British when they displaced the Dutch in 1795 (Navaratnam, 1998).
Present temple
The present Koneswaram temple was constructed by the Hindus on 3 March 1963.
A fragmentary slab-inscription of the reign of Rajaraja I
Reign : King Rajaraja I (985-1014 A.D.)
Period : 10th-11th centuries A.D.
Scripts : Medieval Tamil
Language : Medieval Tamil
This inscribed fragmentary slab was discovered in 1961, by under-water explorers who searched antiquities of the demolished temple at the bed of the nearby sea (Gunasingam, 1979). It is presently preserved in the premises of the Koneswaram Temple.
The remaining slab is about one foot long and six inches wide and contains 9 lines of writing (Gunasingam, 1979). A portion of the meykkirtti (prasasti) of King Rajaraja I (a South Indian king who reigned from 985 to 1014 A.D.) is found recorded on the slab (Gunasingam, 1979).
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2) Gunasingam, S., 1979. Trincomalee inscriptions series, No. 2: Three Cola inscriptions from Trincomalee. Published by the author. Peradeniya. pp.1-3.
3) Gunasingam, S., 1975. A Tamil slab inscription at Nilaveli. The Ceylon Journal of the Humanities. Colombo. pp.61–71.
4) Navaratnam, C.S., 1998. Koneswaram: A temple of a thousand columns. North-East Sri Lanka- A compendium: 50th anniversary of Sri Lanka's independence 1948-1998. North-East Provincial Council. pp.159-171.
5) Tagare, G.V., 1987. The Vayu Purana: Part I. UNESCO collection of representative works: India series. p.311.
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